Mount Ascutney, at an elevation of 3,130 ft, is located on the eastern boarder of Vermont and New Hampshire, in the town of Ascutney. This site offers a commanding view both north and south along the Connecticut River valley and Interstate 91. After the U.S. Corps of Engineers built a road close (but not quite) to the summit, the site became a great potential for other use.
The most challenging thing was getting equipment to the true summit, which is line-of-site from the parking lot but about 1/2-mile away via a foot path. Not an insurmountable task, as the first user of the site was the Vermont Department on Forests & Parks, who erected a forest fire look-out tower there. Soon after came the Vermont Department of Public Safety, U.S. Corps of Engineers, and Miller Construction. Presently, several communications systems are located there along with NFMRA’s amateur radio repeaters.
The NFMRA station operates on 448.125 TX and 443.125 RX. A CTCSS tone 110.9 is required. Decoding a second tone, 71.9, will disconnect the repeater from the link system allowing it to operate as a “stand-alone” repeater and not connected in to the state-wide system.
This repeater was originally part of W1IMD’s system and now uses that call sign. It was added into the NFMRA system in 2013. Worthy of note, this site also hosts a DMR repeater operating on 448.475. This system is part of the NEDECN network and also the DMR MARC group.